First, have you made the smart move and invested in a CRM? Great! Then, have you spent a ton of time deciding which tool would fit better in your company, and at the same time improve your sales and reduce manual work? Astonishing! Let’s be sure how to proceed with what we call the CRM adoption.
Did you share the news and everyone had the same enthusiasm? No? Don’t panic, we are here to help you.
Do you remember the last time that something just popped up unexpectedly in your life? For this purpose, let’s all imagine a cat. A small, cute, irresistible creature that makes: meow!
How does this meow-meow make you feel? Positive? Negative? Neutral? A new pet, a new personal or professional adventure, a new routine… something new, always carries a few challenges aside. And, as humans, we all feel different reactions to the unknown, and this needs to be addressed to overpass issues that might block the success of your organization-wide adoption of a new CRM.
Here’s the table of contents for this article:
Relevant stats
First, find below some interesting facts regarding CRM that might bring you some peace of mind:
- CRM is a $52.4 billion industry
- Is predicted that the CRM market size will increase from $63.91 billons in 2022 to $145.79 by 2029
- The CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) at 13,3% (predicted 2022 to 2030)
- 65% of people implementing CRM want it to be easy-to-use
Now that you are absolutely sure that you made the right option, you’re ready to learn about how you can provide a smooth and exciting journey to assure the engagement of your organization. And fortunately, we have a plan that can help, using Salesforce as a platform. There’s a lot of reasons why Salesforce is the best solution you can integrate within your business operations – you won’t be sad to decide on this implementation.
Bushido – The 10 steps for CRM adoption
Foreword: If you are reading this, you already know first that despite this magical tool that is a CRM, implementing is a difficult challenge because it brings changes in all organization members of any level. Consequently, this will mean that you have to adapt the CRM solution to your organization and not the opposite.
1. Define a CRM adoption philosophy
To create a CRM philosophy you need to have a CRM mindset. If you decided to have a CRM, you decided to give another step to boost the relationship with your #1 priority – your client. In other words, your organization is committed to a business model where the customer is the star – a customer-centric model, and to achieve this, there will be multiple steps where CRM is going to help you.
2. I got your back
Lapalisse’s truth: the CRM adoption is directed linked to the number of people that use the system. Having this in mind, we need to be aware that is a project that involves all levels of an organization. Meaning that you need to have the top hierarchy by your side. In fact, they not only must be involved but also inspire others to follow (remember the music: follow the leader) because their involvement sends a positive message through the entire organization.
3. Find a Samurai…
No, Tom Cruise doesn’t fit. In short, we’re talking about a person aligned and loyal to the values of the CRM philosophy. This person has the most important work of all – to run the show. Whether you are implementing or switching a CRM, this samurai will be in charge of running the project with the role of ensuring the necessary steps are being taken.
4. …And a White Ninja
Unlike, the conventional ninja that was invisible to the human eye, this person will attract all the attentions. But who is this person? Above all, is the one that knows everything and more that you need about your CRM, that loves the solution and wants to test everything. This is the person to get to when someone within your organization needs support, that’s where it’ll be and this will be also the person to go to when you need to get information about software updates or related.
5. Recruit training
This is where you will separate who’s in from who’s out, or in this case, the people that will embrace the CRM or will be rejected. Despite being more or less skeptical, we all need training when it comes to new software so you can choose a classical classroom-type training, or create virtual lessons (accessible anytime and everywhere) provided by external teams or you can assign someone inside your organization. Hey, perfect timing to call the withe ninja, right? Don’t forget to deliver this training in a fun and dynamic way, to increase engagement.
6. Create a safe space *This will be one of the most important*
As time goes by, and you are taking the previous steps, the number of doubts will increase and that’s why you need to create a safe space for users to share their inputs anonymously. So in order to receive feedback, add some user surveys and give members a way to openly expose their thoughts and get to work with that results.
7. Usage guidelines for CRM adoption
Think ahead and create a usage guideline. If you want to allow your sales manager to track the progress of the sales through pipelines, accessing reports with accurate data, you need to have all the members following the same method, so establish how to include new data or how to register a sale. The guidelines should aim at the trilogy of how, what, and when.
8. CRM adoption trophy
What about a challenge? Explore the competitive side. How to do a 2-in-1? Organize regular tournaments within your organization. This will change the mindset of some members, and help to improve the CRM adoption and hopefully the sales. Just don’t forget to reward the top scorers.
9. Lead & Overcome negative attitudes
Remember the cat? I know it might sound impossible but there are people that simply don’t like cats because they’re allergic, a dog-lover, or just can’t find positive reasons to like these animals. As you may imagine, the biggest challenge is people and any change like this one comes with additional issues, such as set routines and processes so be prepared to lead with negativism. But, how can you measure the adoption, and at the same time find the people that are most resistant to change?
For instance, One way is with an adoption dashboard, where you track the progress of the users. Another possible tip is to highlight the benefits of CRM on how their tasks can be reduced, where they can find all the data they need, and how they can improve the sales. However, if you’re still fighting with the ratio adoption you may listen to the users because they are speaking about it and for this, you need to know how to listen. Consequently, the success will increase if the end-users have an active voice in this project. Above all, adjust the CRM to their necessities and arrange meetings, where you regularly listen and try to fix their concerns.
10. Ready, Set, Go!
The time has arrived and now all you need to do is spread the news. Set a strategic plan to deliver the announcement so you can use all the internal tools in your organization. For instance, publish an article on your intranet, an email for the distribution list, or organize a launch party. The most important outcome is to excite and incite enthusiasm in the organization. Therefore, do a follow-up, talk with people, asking their feedback and trying to understand the overall feeling. This way, you can anticipate any future problems.
A Salesforce solution implementation with the help of Stellaxius is a smoother path to follow until success. For instance, our methodology is based on continuous integration with the platforms you already have and so you will mitigate any issue when transferring your data between software. If you’re struggling with your CRM adoption, get to know what we can do for you. We’re experts in solving Salesforce CRM mysteries.
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